A Day (or Two) in the Life of a Digital Nomad/Full-Time Traveler

What is daily life really like after you sell most of your belongings and travel the world? As one of our most frequently asked questions, it's not always the easiest to answer. Given the fact that we roam the globe, routines are not as stringent as with our previous stationery life. Being flexible, adaptable, receptive, resilient, and curious are all essential skills we're still developing even after two years of full-time travel. Even with the best laid plans, shit happens!

Our day-to-day lives are somewhat routine, albeit in different places/time zones, and in unfamiliar languages. These factors significantly impact the amount of time even mundane tasks take. I don't know about you, but while living in the USA, my car could have driven itself to Costco or Target. I could take cash out of any ATM. I knew which grocery store was the least expensive and called my dentist when I needed a cleaning. Now? There's no "typical" anything. Each new country comes with an entirely new set of criteria, norms, and protocols. Surprisingly, this can make ordinary tasks much less mundane!

To get a clearer picture of this alternative lifestyle, it helps to break our time down into some natural divisions: travel days, weekdays, and weekends.

Travel Days

All of our days are travel days, right? Not really. I'm talking about the days we move from one place to another with all of our luggage in tow. For example, this could mean flying eight hours over an ocean or taking a two hour train journey to a new country/city. Our goal is to only move every 1-3 months, and we do this primarily on weekends to avoid stress on Brad's work schedule. Even so, travel days are by far our least favorite, most stressful, and tend to be highly unpredictable. Many people can't imagine spending 24 hours a day/7 days a week with their spouse. For us personally, travel days are the only days we are quietly contemplating poisoning the other's coffee. (Kidding! Or am I? Bahaha)

So, in order to alleviate the extra stress, anxiety, and angst on travel days, we have adopted a few tricks from other nomad friends. First, we remind our "travel day selves" (Bruno and Helga, respectively) that we're on the same team and blame isn't going to get them anywhere. Second, we agree to forgive anything said to the other in anger, frustration, hangryness, annoyance, irritation, or tiredness. For example, Bruno is allowed to express his aggravation at Helga's overweight bag, and Helga can roll her eyes and swear under her breath at Bruno for (once again) not making the necessary ground transportation arrangements prior to landing. It reminds me a funny meme that went around a while back.......

In other words, we give each other tremendous grace and latitude to feel our stress, laugh later, and realize those people don't exist most days.

Lastly, on travel days we typically splurge for private transportation to/from our accommodations. While we love public transit and use it everywhere, we're willing to spend a bit more on travel days to save our sanity.

Upon arrival, our first few tasks include the following:

• Getting cash at an ATM in addition to figuring out the currency exchange rate (we use an app called Xe to find the general rate).

• Fully unpacking and putting away our suitcases. This is fundamental to us feeling "at home" in new spaces.

• Getting our computer workstations setup: connecting to the internet, testing the speed, and finding the most comfortable chairs for working.

• Assessing our kitchen for cooking: Are we missing any crucial items? If so, we message our host first, and then evaluate if we need to purchase anything. (cutting boards, sharp knives, etc.)

• Finding a grocery store/getting groceries: Not a simple task while abroad, but definitely one of our favorite things! It is rare to find a grocery store even half the size of any typical American supermarket (yes, I miss this!), however, it is so interesting and curious to discover local products. We use label pictures or Google Lens to translate ingredients. Google Lens rarely get every word correct, so it can also be quite entertaining!

• Finding a laundry facility nearby if we don't have a washer in our apartment.

• Walking around our neighborhood to get a "feel" for our surroundings.

• Figuring out how to use the local public transportation: Do we need tickets ahead of time? Do we purchase on the bus/train? Every system has their own nuances and once we understand them we have no issues.

• Research what local or country-specific apps are needed or helpful? Transportation, food delivery, navigation, and weather apps are all examples. For instance, I currently have seven different ride-share apps on my phone from various countries!

  
  

Weekdays

Contrary to popular belief, we are not (unfortunately) on vacation 24/7. Brad works a full-time job, so the majority of our weekdays are fairly routine and predictable, with one caveat: time zones. Navigating work with a team on Central Standard Time (CST) in the USA means Brad tries to overlap his workday with their schedules as much as possible. Therefore, during our time in Mexico & Central America (Oct 2023-Aug 2024) he worked the same basic hours as his company since we were always within an hour of the same time zone.

While in the United Kingdom or Europe, our weekdays look quite different. With a 6-7 hour time difference, Brad's workday doesn't start until 11:00a or later and he works well into the evening. Therefore, instead of having our free time in the evenings, we have our mornings together. We are both very early risers, so we love this schedule. During our free time together, we exercise, take walks, get groceries, watch movies/tv/youtube, or explore our neighborhood -- all things we did living in the US.

In order for Brad to maintain a viable work schedule, we are choosing to stay within a 6-8 hour time difference of his US office for the foreseeable future. We plan to explore Asia, Japan, Oceania and all that side of the world has to offer several years from now.

While Brad is working, I'm active with a rotating list of responsibilities and projects. I study Spanish every day, read oodles of books, explore on my own, plan and cook all of our meals, clean and do laundry, write this blog and journal, and generally enjoy being retired from full-time work. I also spend many, many hours doing research and planning our future travel.

Weekends

Weekends are the truly magical part of living as digital nomads/full-time travelers because we get to explore wherever we're living! Typically, we venture no more than 3-4 hours from our base area. Occasionally, we will take an overnight weekend trip, leaving most of our belongings in our long-term rental. We never have a hard time filling our weekends with things to do or see. The sites may not all be world-famous, but that's the whole point to us!

We are ramblers. We could spend entire days aimlessly strolling around a city and slowly taking in its streets, parks, boulevards, trails, and back alleyways. We love stumbling upon a cute coffee shop or wine bar. We'll chat with the locals at nearby tables, often asking for recommendations. Now and then we take tours or meet up with nomad friends. We truly savor the slower pace of our lives and understand we won't see everything....and that's ok.

There is no set way to be a nomad. Every one of our nomadic friends' life looks very different. The beauty of this unconventional lifestyle is that you get to choose! We have friends who fast travel, only spending a week or less in most destinations. We also know digital nomads who travel slower than we do, even extending their visas in order to stay longer in one place. Additionally, budgets as nomads vary as much as living conventionally. We likely fall about in the middle - we are not strict budget backpackers, but rather always conscious of what we're spending. We rarely stay in 5-Star luxury properties, however, we do prioritize comfort when we're living somewhere a month or more. One thing that may surprise you? There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of other nomads roaming the globe like us. Just one nomadic group I joined has over 17,000 members! While this lifestyle comes with its own unique set of challenges, we absolutely love it and have no plans to stop anytime soon.

Where Have We Been and What's Next?

Yikes - It's been a while since I've updated this blog. We spent 4+ months in Panama (April-August), mostly petsitting. We survived the weather but both agreed we are not suited for heat and humidity long-term. Luckily, our animal companions made our time in Panama very memorable.

We flew home mid-August and spent two wonderful weeks with family and friends. Thank you to everyone who made time for us! Since then, we have done a bit of "faster" travel than we're used to. Two weeks in Augsburg, Germany, then an incredible week with my brother, Jeff, and his wife, Jenna exploring Austria and Bavaria before ending our trip at Oktoberfest in Munich. They flew home from Munich and we grabbed a train to Berlin to spend time with more friends for two weeks. After all this? We remember why we like slower travel! HA!

In October, we rented an apartment in Tirana, Albania for five weeks. The city itself is very walkable, has lots of greenspace, and is super affordable. We rented a car one weekend and took a whirlwind trip down the coast of the Albanian Riviera and drove back through the interior of the country. We were STUNNED at its natural beauty and will definitely be back one day. We consider Albania one of the top 5 countries we've visited so far!

We took an overnight ferry across the Adriatic Sea from Durres, Albania to Bari, Italy last week. We will explore the Puglia region of Italy with our dear friends, David & John, who arrive today. They love wine as much as we do and we ARE in Italy....so....

Cheers, Peace, Love, and Kindness,

Jenn